Highway guard



June 9, 1936.

E. L. BENEDICT HIGHWAY GUARD Filed April 5, 1932 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 June 9, 1935- E. L. BENEDICT 2,043,525

H IGHWAY GUARD Filed April 5, 1932 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR dami W mwmfl m Patented June 9, 1936 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE HIGHWAY GUARD Edward L. Benedict, Oakmont, 1a., assignor to Pittsburgh Steel Company, Pittsburgh, Pa., corporation of Pennsylvania Application April 5, 1932, Serial No. 60 3,383

8 Claims.

' pacity of resistance for a given weight of material.

Another object of my ivention is to provide a guard structure that is highly yieldable, and can be deflected to a .greater extent than various types of guards heretofore employed, without permanent deformation of the guard strip.

A further object of my invention is to provide an improved form of yielding buifer support for guard bands.

Another object of my invention is to provide a guard band or strip of improved form, and an improved manner of connecting the same to supporting posts or the like.

Some of the forms which my invention may take are shown in the accompanying drawingswherein Figure l is a face view of a portion of the guard structure; Fig. 2 is a face view of a portion thereof, on an enlarged scale; Fig. 3 is a view taken on the line IIIIII of Fig. 2; Fig. 4 is a plan view of the structure of Fig. 2; Fig. 5 is a vertical sectional view through the mesh of Fig. 2; Fig. 6 shows a modification of the mesh of Fig. 2; Fig. 7 is a vertical sectional view thereof, and Figs. 8 and 9 are face and sectional views respectively of still another modification.

The structure is shown as composed of a bandlike strip of mesh l that is supported on intermediate posts H and is connected to end posts 12, the posts being sunk into the ground or anchored in concrete bases, and the end posts being provided with anchor rods I3 in the usual manner.

The band It is shown as composed of strand wires l5, preferably of steel, so that they ,will have considerable elasticity or spring. The wires are supported in unitary relation by a stay wire or wires H5. The strand wires l5 alternately pass in front of and behind the stay wires i6, and the stay wires 16 are preferably of sufflciently soft metal that permanent bends are formed therein at points where the strand wires cross them, the permanent bends serving as seats to resist vertical displacement of the strand wires.

Some of the strand wires may be welded to the stays IE, but I prefer to have the majority of them slidably supported for longitudinal movement on the seats or bends formed in said stays.

The. stays it are shown as disposed on diagonal or inclined lines, so that they will not so readily become displaced through glancing blows by hubs or bumper bars of vehicles. and this is particularly desirable where the stays are not welded to any of the strand wires. The slidable connections between the strand wires [5 and the stays l6 render the structure more elastic and permits of greater deflection thereof under vehicle impacts, without permanent deformation of the band.

While the wires l5 and i5 may be of any suitable gage and spacing, depending upon conditions to be met, I have shown the wires I5 as being of approximately 8 gage and spaced apart 5 3 inches center-to-center, while the stay wires It may be of similar gage or somewhat lighter. The average distancebetween adjacent inclined stays is-shown as approximately 4 inches. That is, the bends in the stays at the top edge of the band are approximately 8 inches apart.

The ends of the band can be suitably clamped to the end posts by clamping plates and bolts. Intermediate its ends the band is supported upon the posts by brackets comprising leaf springs 20, rear clamping bars 2| and front clamping bars 22, held in place by bolts 23 which extend through the posts.

Each spring 20 is of semi-elliptical form with its ends curved outwardly as shown more clearly in Fig. 4, so that said ends may slide on the face of the post during compression and expansion of the spring.

The spring 20 is shown as seating against a wear plate 24, but such plate may be dispensed with, particularly if the post is composed of hard wood, such as oak or locust. Also, the spring 20 may extend the full width of the band, as shown in Fig. 3, or may be divided into vertically-spaced sections. If a plurality of narrow springs 20 are employed, they will, of course, have to be of heavier material than in the case of a spring whose vertical dimension is equal to the width of the band It.

The bar 2! is held against the spring 20 by the bolts 23 which are threaded into tapped holes in the rear side of the bar, and the band 20 is clamped against the bar 2| by the bar 22 and bolts 25.

The holes through which the bolts 23 extend are widened or flared horizontally toward their outer edge, as indicated at 26, so that the bolts may pivot about their heads and permit the mesh and the spring 20 to have horizontal sliding movement across the face of the post. The utility of this arrangement resides in the fact that if a thrust is imposed against the band intermediate two posts, the stress will be transmitted to those portions of the bands extending across the other posts, thereby increasing the yieldability of the band. The springs serve not only as buffers in the case of impacts imposed against the band in the vicinity of the posts, but they will yield under impacts against the band at other points, and will restore the band to a taut condition.

The bolt 23, spring 20, and the clamping bars 2| and 22 can be also employed to support a sheet metal band instead of the mesh band I0, for the purpose of transmitting stresses and maintaining the sheet metal band in taut condition, as above explained.

Referring now to Figs. 6 and 7, I show a modifled form of structure wherein strand wires 21 correspond to the strand wires l5, but wherein short stays 28 are employed instead of the continuous or semi-continuous stays IS, the stays 28 being all inclined in the same direction. The stays 28 are bent at the points where the strands 21 cross them, and slidably support the said strands, except that the upper and lower ends of the stays are preferably welded to the uppermost and lowermost strand wires. Here again, the inclined arrangement of the stays reduces tendency for the same to be displaced through glancing blows from the hubs or bumper bars of vehicles.

In Figs. 8 and 9, I show a band which is composed of a mesh body of skeleton form, which comprises longitudinal wires 30 and stay wires 3i, all welded'together at their points of intersection, the longitudinal wires being widely spaced relative to one another. In this form of device, strand wires 32 are passed alternately in front of and behind the stays 3!, and are slidably supported in bends formed in said stays, so that they may have longitudinal movement relative to the longitudinal wires 30, thereby increasing the yieldability of the structure. Also, their tensile strength and inherent elasticity is greater than if they were welded to the stay wires, since they would be more subject to breakage at welded joints.

It will, of course, be understood that the bands cf Figs'. 6 and 8 can be substituted for the band l0.

' I claim as my invention:-

1. A guard fence comprising supports, an impact-receiving band, means for connecting said band to a support, and a. spring of semi-elliptical form connected .at its mid portion to said means, those portions of the spring to either side of its mid portion having slidable engagement with the said support.

2. A guard fence comprising a support, an impact-receiving band, a spring of semi-elliptical form having its horizontal extremities curved and bearing against the support, and means for connecting the band to the said spring and the support.

3. A guard fence comprising a support, an impact-receiving band, a spring of semi-elliptical form having its horizontal extremities curved and bearing against the support, and means movable across the face of the post for connecting the band and the said spring to the support.

4. A guard fence comprising a support, an impact-receiving band, a spring interposed between the band and the face of the support and slidably supported on said face, and means for connecting the spring and theband to said support.

5. A guard fence comprising a support, an impact-receiving band, a spring slidably mounted on the face of said support and interposed between the band and the support, and a pivotal connection between the said band and the support permitting of longitudinal movement of the band relative to the face of the support.

6. A guard fence comprising supports, wire strands mounted on said supports, stays having bends formed in the front and rear sides thereof to serve as seats for the strand wires, the vertical center-to-center distances between said bends being not less than twice the thickness of each strand, the strand wires being disposed i1 front of certain stays and behind adjacent stays, and being slidably supported on said seats, and means for maintaining the strands under longitudinal tension and yieldably holding them against the stays.

'7. A guard fence comprising supports, wire strands mounted on said supports, stays having bends formed in the front and rear sides thereof to serve as seats for the strand wires, the vertical ccnter-to-center distances between said ends being not less than twice the thickness of each strand, the strand wires being disposed in front of certain stays and behind adjacent stays, and being slidably supported on said seats, and means for maintaining the strands under longitudinal tension and yieldably holding them against the stays, the band thus formed by the strands and stays being not materially less than 12 inches in width.

8. A guard fence comprising supports, wire strands mounted on said supports, stays for maintaining the strands deflected alternately in opposite directions at a plurality of points between said supports, and means for yieldably maintaining the strands in engagement with the sides of the stays at predetermined points, the points of engagement being vertically spaced apart distances not less than twice the thickness of each strand, and the strands being slidable on the stays in directions longitudinally of the strands.

EDWARD L. BENEDICT. 

